Florida Chef Slits His Own Throat In Restaurant Dining Room

In this week’s Bizarre Kitchen Deaths, a Florida chef apparently attempted suicide in his Key Largo restaurant dining room, before retiring to his apartment above the restaurant to die.

Stephan Stolze of Steamer’s Restaurant appears to have taken a knife from the kitchen, walked into the dining room during a time when the seating area was empty, and sliced his own throat. Another employee followed him into the dining room, and saw blood on a table and on the floor, but Stolze was not in the room. Unaware of the extent of his injuries, the employee began mopping up the floor and the tables, lest a patron walk in and see the blood.

A restaurant manager eventually followed the trail of blood up to Stolze’s apartment above the restaurant, and found him face down on his balcony, unresponsive, and without a pulse.

Co-workers say the German-born chef had been feeling homesick after getting dumped by his girlfriend, but he had been encouraged by his father, who still lived overseas, to stay in The States, due to the lack of culinary industry jobs available in Germany. The restaurant Stolze worked in was owned by his mother.